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<DIV><FONT size=2>Final reminder of the Rally tomorrow noon!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Call from Nancy Murray, ACLU</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Below, Stephen Soldz, One of the Rally Organizers, <EM>News
Release</EM></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV></FONT>
<DIV><FONT size=2> </FONT><FONT size=3><STRONG>Protest Psychologists'
Participation in Torture</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG></STRONG> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>We now know that psychologists have helped to develop infamous
U.S.<BR> government torture techniques.<BR> Other professional
associations, such as the American Medical<BR> Association and the American
Psychiatric Association, have clearly<BR> condemned the participation of
their members in these activities -- but<BR> the American Psychological
Association has not. Instead, its leadership<BR> has hedged, and the
association has not taken action against a single<BR> psychologist involved
in developing these appalling methods of<BR> interrogation. You can learn
more on our blog</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2><A
href="http://www.massrightsblog.org/2008/08/join-us-sat-aug-16-for-anti-torture.html">http://www.massrightsblog.org/2008/08/join-us-sat-aug-16-for-anti-torture.html</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2><BR> *Please join us to protest the A.P.A.'s complicity
with the government's<BR> torture regime:*</FONT></DIV><FONT size=2>
<DIV><BR> <STRONG><FONT color=#0000ff>Anti-torture rally at
American Psychological Association convention<BR> Saturday,
Aug. 16, 12:00 - 2:00 p.m.<BR> Boston Convention and
Exhibition Center<BR> Plaza at front
entrance<BR> 415 Summer Street</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT color=#0000ff></FONT></STRONG> </DIV>
<DIV>
<P><STRONG>Via Subway (MBTA Red Line): <BR></STRONG>Exit at the South Station
stop, and go up one flight of stairs. Take the MBTA Silver line SL1, SL2 or SL3
to the World Trade Center stop.<BR>Take the elevator up to Level 2. Take a left
onto World Trade Center Ave, and the BCEC will be directly infront of
you.<BR></P></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2><STRONG><FONT color=#0000ff><BR></FONT></STRONG> The ACLU
of Massachusetts is co-sponsoring this rally to let the<BR> American
Psychological Association leadership know that collaboration
in<BR> government-sponsored torture must not be tolerated. Psychology must
once<BR> again become a profession based upon fundamental ethical
principles.<BR> Meanwhile, you can also learn more about the U.S.
government's latest<BR> abuses of power, by reading our new Civil Liberties
Update<BR> Nancy Murray<BR> Education
Director<BR><BR><BR><STRONG><FONT size=3>From APA Rally organizer, Stephen
Soldz:<BR></FONT></STRONG><BR>"In the absence of ethical leadership from the
APA, a referendum to remove psychologists from sites in violation of
international law has been proposed by members; ballots went out to the
membership last week and are due back in mid-September.<BR> <BR>In a recent
letter in support of the referendum, Bryant Welch, a clinical psychologist,
attorney and former long-time APA official, said: “In the eyes of the world
psychologists are being seen as aiders and abettors of torture. The damage to
the profession grows day by day, and the shamefulness of it reflects on all of
us, whether we like it or not.” <BR> <BR>In his closing argument
delivered today before the military commission in the case of U.S. v. Jawad,
Maj. Frakt said: “ What has this country come to when a licensed psychologist, a
senior officer in the U.S. Armed Forces, someone trained in the art of healing
broken hearts and mending broken minds, someone with a duty to do no harm, turns
her years of training and education to the art of breaking people, to the
intentional devastation of a lonely, homesick teenage boy?”
<BR>"<BR>=====================================<BR>I was scheduled to testify at
the Guantánamo Military commission yesterday. At the last moment the testimony
was canceled. Here is a Press Release from the Coalition for an Ethical
Psychology and Psychologists for an Ethical APA explaining why. This was on the
front page of the New York Sun and Daily Kos this morning. Much more press
coverge is coming.<BR><BR>***NEWS RELEASE***<BR>from<BR>COALITION FOR AN ETHICAL
PSYCHOLOGY<BR>PSYCHOLOGISTS FOR AN ETHICAL APA <BR> <BR>Military
Psychologist Invokes Right to Remain Silent at Guantánamo Hearing, Refusing to
Testify About Abusive Treatment of Detainee <BR> <BR>Psychologists and
Human Rights Groups to Rally Saturday Against American Psychological
Association’s Controversial Torture Policy <BR> <BR>FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE<BR>Thursday, August 14, 2008<BR> <BR>CONTACTS: Emily
Whitfield, emily@emilywhitfield.org
<BR>
Stephen Soldz, soldz@bgsp.edu<BR> <BR>BOSTON – A military psychologist who
recommended isolation torture techniques on a Guantánamo detainee today invoked
her right not to incriminate herself, refusing to testify in the case of
Mohammad Jawad. <BR> <BR>Her testimony was sought by defense attorney
Maj. David Frakt in a hearing on his motion to dismiss charges based upon
government misconduct in using prolonged isolation, sleep deprivation, and other
torture techniques against his client in an attempt to make him more pliable in
interrogations. Following a month-long isolation, apparently recommended by the
military psychologist, Mr. Jawad – who entered Guantánamo as a teenager --
attempted suicide.<BR> <BR>The psychologist’s testimony would have marked
the first time that a member of the secretive Behavioral Science Consultation
Team (known as BSCT or “biscuits”) had been called to testify in a detainee
hearing. The BSCT program has been highly controversial among psychologists and
other health professionals. The psychologist invoked her rights under
Article 31 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the military equivalent of
the 5th amendment right against self-incrimination/right to remain
silent.<BR> <BR>“The fact that the BSCT Psychologist now apparently
recognizes that her conduct was criminal in nature is very significant,” said
Maj. Frakt. “We have alleged, based on classified government records that
the BSCT psychologist's recommendation led directly to the illegal abuse and
inhumane treatment of Mohammad Jawad. This invocation of the right to remain
silent seems to confirm that.”<BR><BR>“The evidence in this case confirms our
worst fears, that military psychologists are working to break down detainee's
psyches,” said Dr. Stephen Soldz, an expert psychologist who had been called by
Maj. Frakt to testify that the BSCT psychologist had violated the professional
credo of “Do no harm.”<BR> <BR>“Today’s developments only confirms our view
that a full accounting of the shadowy BSCT program is long overdue,” he
added. Dr. Soldz is a psychoanalyst, psychologist, and faculty member at
Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis. <BR> <BR>The news comes on the
eve of a rally against torture to be held this Saturday outside the Boston
Convention Center where the American Psychological Association, the largest
group of its kind, is meeting this weekend. The APA has come under
increasing fire for its refusal to ban its members’ participation in Bush
administration coercive interrogations and torture, as the AMA and the American
Psychiatric Association have done. <BR> <BR> “The continuing silence
of the APA on member involvement in torture is telling,” Dr. Soldz said. “No APA
leader or official has ever uttered one word critical of actual U.S. abuse, or
of the role of psychologists and psychological expertise in that abuse. They
continue to stonewall on disciplining any psychologists who participated,
despite promises to investigate.”<BR><BR>At Saturday’s rally, psychologists
speaking out against the policy will be joined by the American Civil Liberties
Union, Amnesty International, and American Friends Service Committee and hear
songs from “Raging Grannies” and local musicians. <BR> <BR>The torture
issue is of increasing concern to all Americans, APA members say, but of
particular importance to psychologists because it violates their primary ethical
obligation to “Do no harm.” As has been documented by numerous journalists
and official government reports, psychologists helped develop, implement,
standardize, and disseminate abusive interrogation techniques that have led to
torture. <BR> <BR>Ignoring this evidence, the APA has repeatedly claimed
that psychologists aiding interrogations keep those interrogations "safe, legal,
and ethical." Dr. Soldz said that the actions of the BSCT psychologist in
Jawad’s case, typical as they appear to be of the BSCT program, show the falsity
of APA's claim. Rather, BSCTs use their psychological expertise “to identify
weaknesses in detainees that can be exploited to break them down psychologically
and render them dependent upon the interrogators,” he said.<BR> <BR>In the
absence of ethical leadership from the APA, a referendum to remove psychologists
from sites in violation of international law has been proposed by members;
ballots went out to the membership last week and are due back in
mid-September.<BR> <BR>In a recent letter in support of the referendum,
Bryant Welch, a clinical psychologist, attorney and former long-time APA
official, said: “In the eyes of the world psychologists are being seen as aiders
and abettors of torture. The damage to the profession grows day by day, and the
shamefulness of it reflects on all of us, whether we like it or not.”
<BR> <BR>In his closing argument delivered today before the military
commission in the case of U.S. v. Jawad, Maj. Frakt said: “ What has this
country come to when a licensed psychologist, a senior officer in the U.S. Armed
Forces, someone trained in the art of healing broken hearts and mending broken
minds, someone with a duty to do no harm, turns her years of training and
education to the art of breaking people, to the intentional devastation of a
lonely, homesick teenage boy?” <BR> <BR>For more information go to:
<BR> <BR>http://psychoanalystsopposewar.org/blog/index.php?s=boston+rally<BR> <BR>www.ethicalapa.com<BR> www.reisnerforpresident.org<BR> </FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>